host: virginia beach, curtis, a democrat. caller: i want to know about local banks, credit unions and if they have credit counseling. and if a bank that you hold a card with, is it a conflict for them to counsel you on your credit debt when they hold a credit card? guest: i would tell you that it is important to call up your creditor when you start to get in trouble. that would be my very first that. and i am obviously not a financial adviser, but i would say that is the first thing you should do is to call up your credit card company and say i am having a problem, what can we do? that is where i would start before we go down some of the other rows. host: have a lot of the debt settlement companies been born to in the past few years because of the economic crisis we have had? guest: yes. when the association of credit- card companies formed, there were only 300 companies in the space. that has increased to 1000 companies. there has been a lot of growth in recent years. and really as the business began to increase after change